pigeon and plum

i am fortunate enough to be invited to join pigeon and plum as their sketch artist at the vaudeville nights that are put on.

www.sirkusonfoot.com

i dress as toulouse lautrec and spend the night moving around on my knees documenting the night with sketches. we just had a run of 3 shows at the blackbox and my knees are still feeling it. what with bein in discomfort and working with poor lighting conditions i rely on the materials i use to do the job for me. this is a great way to work as it frees me from many of the conventions of how art is ideally considered to be created.

to be part of such a great show transports me to a time when sketching would have been a common site. with the ease at which digital photography makes documentation it saddens me that documentary drawing is becoming quite the rare thing - so this is my little bit to keep this artform alive in public eyes.

this is maybe the 7th time i've done this and this series has been my most successful to date.

its great craic bein henri. to me one of the greatest and most important artists. an artist i have came closer to from takin on his character.

it is an honour to be part of pigeon and plum's tribute to the past.

Savaged

this is from a while back and is displayed at the Mike's house. painted late 2001 early 2002 it is a piece i forgot about...at the time i always considered it unfinished but have spent a long time viewing it. its strange because when i finish a painting i don't really consider it mine. i guess my thoughts are on to new work. so it is for the viewer...in this case i have became the audience for my own work. what i'm finding interesting that 9 years later with absolutely no extra work added to it it is not only finally finished but seems it will become quite influentual to the current series of paintings i am working on...we'll see

it is about 4 ft square and mixed media

feb 2002

n bridge

11 meter painting from the north bridge in edinburgh...was shown at higher bridges gallery in enniskillen

i hadn't painted in a while. i just wanted to do somethin really big. its really a farewell to edinburgh. i wasn't at all sad to leave. on the busstop i've written

even though you don't realise it i miss you and think of you often

i think thats really luvly

brilliant michael posted a video on youtube a few hours after the openin so you can have a wee look at it...its great but - i'm a bit wick in it

feb 2008

steve's pathetic angel

i'm guessing this was about may 2001...possibly one of my first watercolours. of interest if rotated 90 degrees counter clockwise it is a picture of a rat attacking steve in his sleep.

this is part of denzil and martha's collection

god cried

watercolour of beirut taken from book of same title

i don't know why i like drawin pictures of war and buildins bein destroyed. its probably psychological meaningful. but to be honest i just enjoy it. i like the way the starbursts comin down on the city make it look like a skull...yeah its a bit metal and tacky but its what the image said to me when i first saw it

july 2008

sketches

these are scans from my various sketchpads...not puting them in any general order...i'll keep updating as time goes by...mostly are done on nights out, circus school, art classes or from me head

the worse is yet to come

5 paintings done as a series earlier this year. at the time i was happy with these images but now feel they are a little over complexed. but i still stand proudly by them regardless of the issues they may have. i'm sure whatever i produce will always be a little difficult for me - i've always been my worse critic.

three of these were shown at the black box belfast in august. one part of the arts society of ulster group show and one is private

they are roughly 3 and half feet by 2

august 2009